


The Malaysia Job

by jollywriter



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, F/M, nate has an existential crisis with normality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 14:47:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12633279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jollywriter/pseuds/jollywriter
Summary: Nathan Drake has gone straight, he's working legitimately and he and Elena seem happy. Their lives seem almost normal. Nate doesn't know how to cope with that.





	The Malaysia Job

Nathan Drake groaned as he climbed over the top of the hotel roof. The ladder up here was broken half way down and he had to mantle up the wall to actually get to the ladder.   
But he wanted to be left alone. And this was the fastest way to assure he could do that. He left Elena downstairs in the room. She was editing the day’s footage, cobbling together a sizzle reel to send back to her producers in the ‘States to show that they were making progress.   
It felt like déjà vu, almost. Almost, but not quite.   
Ten-ish years ago, they’d been on a boat Elena had rented, and they’d opened up the empty coffin of Sir Francis Drake.   
The boat they had now was far less rickety than the one that failed to survive the Panamanian pirates.   
He looked around the rooftop. It wasn’t much, it hadn’t been re-tarred in years by the look of it. Birds nested along the inner wall next to the sloped marquis. He took a seat on a bricked over chimney, shrugged off his backpack, and pulled the beer out.   
It wasn’t much, not exactly a grand escape, but it’d do. Malaysia was cooler than he expected it to be. He’d tried to keep a map, when he’d started traveling with Sam, of the places he’d gone. But it hadn’t been worth much, after he escaped with Rafe and he thought Sam didn’t make it.   
Fifteen years. Fifteen years spent thinking Sam was dead. Elena still side-eyed him about not talking about it, which was fair, he didn’t blame her for that. A brother, an actual biological brother, and he never brought it up, not even in passing?  
Nate didn’t try to defend his actions. He’d kept Sam a secret for a reason. It wasn’t a good one, in hindsight, but that wasn’t the point, was it? All the shame, fear, resentment, all the reasons that made talking about Sam didn’t seem so significant now that it was all out in the open and Sam was alive and working with Sully. On the other side of the traumatic trek through the island of Libertalia, it didn’t seem so significant. But before that? It’d been insurmountable.   
He pulled a beer out of the pack and twisted the screw top off. Should he have invited Elena up to the rooftop to talk? He honestly didn’t know. It was frustrating, trying to figure this out. They’d survived Libertalia, they’d restored their marriage, Sam and Sully were off working, and Elena had found the golden ticket that’d combined their restless nature with legitimate employment.   
Ideally, things should be perfect.   
Then why did Nate feel an overwhelming sense of ‘other-booted-ness.’  
Something was wrong, or about to go wrong, and he had no idea what it was or how to stop it.   
He sipped at his beer.   
Ideally, this was the actual dream. He’d accomplished everything his mother dreamed of, and found the pirate paradise. He’d discovered history that strained his own credulity, and he’d been there. He’d witnessed it.   
He’d smashed incalculable archeological riches to pieces.   
He looked down at his beer sheepishly and sipped it. He’d done a lot wrong, that was for sure. But he’d tried.   
Then why did he feel like there was a pal hanging over him? Everything was good, better than good!   
He didn’t know how to do “good.”  
This was probably the closest he and Elena had ever come to being anything remotely resembling domestic.   
He shuddered at the thought of the word. Then stopped himself. Why? Why freak out about that? Normal people are domestic. They’re married and they have kids and they’re content. Theoretically. When was he content?  
It was a real question. Because he had a lot of answers. When Sam asked him sitting in the ruins of the bar in the old town of Libertalia, Nate would probably have said when they were kids. On the hunt, getting into and out of trouble. It was fun, existing like that. Dangerous and sketchy as hell but fun.   
He’d gone through a lot and come through the other side without many visible scars. They were there, but not exactly explicable. Sully was fine, so was Sam. And yet?  
Nate didn’t tell Sully but sometimes he still has nightmares. Seeing Sully die twice wasn’t something that was easy to shake off, no matter how Nate played it. Even though it’d turned out okay, Nate saw Sully catch a bullet and the fact that Sully was alive and fine didn’t make it much easier to cope with.   
Sully knew what he was to Nate. There was a party Elena dragged Nate to in order to schmooze money for the expedition to Malaysia. Nate had gotten dressed up, and had a formal invitation and everything. It’s weird, being properly invited to a party.   
Elena wore the most elegant and classy tux he’d ever seen. It’d started as a joke almost, he’d worn a black tux with a white shirt, she’d worn a white tux black trousers and a red vest.   
She’d looked insanely good, and she’d gotten thirty percent more than she’d expected.   
Sully’d gone along. Neither Elena nor Nate knew that, however, and when Nate smelled that godawful cigar and recognized the laugh, he’d been almost staggered.   
There was trepidation, too, because as he approached, he didn’t know if Sully was working or running some sort of game. So when he’d seen Nate and boomed, “Hey kid!” and pulled him into a hug and introduced him as his son.   
It became obvious in a hurry that Sully wasn’t there to hustle. But he did pick up a date, and thoroughly embarrassed Nate as only a father can.   
Still. He choked up that night when he told Elena about how Sully introduced him.   
Elena held him that night, and they’d been fierce together, eager in ways that only long intimacy can produce.   
He snapped abruptly back to himself as someone honked on the street below. The night in Malaysia was still muggy, even though it was past midnight.   
But there was a stiff breeze from the inland and the cool air from the mountain peaks carried down into the city. It was nicer.   
He sipped at his beer only to find the first bottle empty. He set it down on his left, picked up a new one with his right hand, and started into that.   
Getting the money for the expedition was the first part of the growing weirdness Nate felt. They’d managed to secure funding and a ship without wheedling, conniving, bribing, or otherwise being unscrupulous. I.E., not using any of the techniques Nate and Sully used to get what they needed in the previous decades.   
And then they’d gotten a crew, a reputable few international folks, who brought experience and energy to the act of salving.   
And now they were here. Actually digging the shipwreck and kicking ass all the while.   
The other shoe threatened to drop and Nate couldn’t figure out what the hell that other shoe meant.   
He heard someone on the ladder and turned to see Elena poke her head up. He slumped.   
“I didn’t see you in the room so I decided to check the nearest high places I could find,” Elena said. She didn’t climb up over the top though.   
“Hi.” He said.   
“You need some space?”  
He hesitated, “No,” he decided.   
“It’s okay, cowboy, if you need a minute.”  
“No, really,” he stood up and picked up a beer, “Come up? Please?”  
She nodded, and mantled over the edge of the roof. She stood up slowly and stretched. She was in her comfy pants made from a fabric as soft as cotton but not like sweat pants or jeans. He didn’t know what they were, and getting them as a present proved virtually impossible because he didn’t know what they were.   
He handed her the beer.   
“Not a lot of room to sit,” She said.   
“You could sit on my lap,” he grinned.   
She smiled, sat down, and she perched herself sideways across his lap. He put his arms around her waist, and leaned against her. They sat like that for a minute, tangled up on the roof of the hotel.   
“So what’s up?” she asked.   
“The sky,” he said, “The moon, probably, but I think it’s behind clouds.”  
“You’re a werewolf then? Drawn to the rooftops of strange hotels in the middle of the nighty so you can howl at it?”  
“Hey you made the reservations,” he shrugged, “If it’s strange, it’s your fault.”  
She laughed. He did too, but it didn’t last long. She noticed. “What’s wrong?”  
He looked at her, and then off into the distance. “I don’t really know.”  
“Well,” she tapped his wrinkled forehead with an extended finger, “This doesn’t crumple on its own.”  
“Yeah it does,” He said. “I wake up all the time with my brow furrowed.”  
“What could possibly be stressing you that much in your sleep?”  
“You,” he nodded sagely. “You’re such a handful.” To demonstrate, he placed his hand squarely on her ass, and at that, she gave him a side-eye.   
“You were so close to dying,” She said. “I mean, I’m just saying, if you’d finished that sentence some other way.”   
He grinned wider, “I know better.”  
“And as far as hand-fulls are concerned, you’re not exactly pint-sized,” She wiggled her butt, and he almost reacted. She noticed, and glanced at him. The heat was there, so was the casual need. It was an easy switch to flip, something they’d done more than once in the jungle when they were both rough and muddy and scraped up.   
Still. When you’re with the one you love, every flat surface feels downy.   
But he was too distracted now. He couldn’t focus on the idea of touching Elena, stirring that passion in her.   
She set her beer down, “Nate, what’s wrong?”  
He didn’t answer immediately, instead he took a deep breath, and then said, “This feels weird.”  
“What does?”  
He gestured to the harbor, visible from the top of the hotel. “This job. It feels dodgy but I can’t explain why.”  
“You think we’re being watched?”  
“Oh I know we’re being watched, depending on what we pull up, bribes will almost certainly have to be paid.”  
“Yeah,” She shrugged. “The ministry of historical preservation will take possession of what we bring up and give us a finder’s fee but the local municipalities will want a cut long before that.”  
“Honestly that’s a concern for Tomorrow,” he shrugged. “We still haven’t technically found what we’re after.”  
She nodded. “What else is bothering you?”  
It came out in a rush, “I don’t know how to do this.”  
She blinked slowly and weighed the words. She didn’t mock him or make a joke or try to tease a response about what, precisely, he meant. She left the words at face value.   
She looked out at the harbor. Their ship bobbed at anchor. She sipped at her beer and silence spread between them. Nate didn’t push, he just drank his own beer. The wind grew a little colder on his back, and she snuggled closer to him for warmth.   
“I think it’ll take some time to get used to,” She said. “But I know you can.”  
“Get used to it?” he asked. “Why is this a thing to get used to?”  
She glanced at him sideways and he looked away. It wasn’t a deliberate act of evasion on his part, it was just a response.   
Rowan pulls a gun and threatens him, Nate’s response is, “Hey, don’t you guys just usually cut off a finger or something?”   
Did he need a different survival tactic? He looked at his beer. No one was threatening him with a gun at this moment, and hadn’t in almost four months. That itself was weirdness.   
“I don’t know how to feel about this,” Nate said.   
“About what?”   
“When did you shoot a gun last?”  
She thought about it, “On our way down the mountain in Libertalia.”  
“So more than a little while.”  
“Longer than average,” Elena said. “Well, longer than has been the average in the past ten years.”  
Nate grinned. “Okay. Fair enough.”  
“Nate,” Elena faced him again. “Why are you beating yourself up?”  
“I’m good at it?”  
Elena didn’t look convinced.   
“I’m scared,” He looked away from her. “I don’t know how to do normal.”  
“It’s okay,” She said. “It’ll take time to adjust.”  
“I have a credit card,” he said. “You know how weird that is?”  
She looked at him, curious. “No, actually.”  
“When Sam and I hit the road, it was a cash business,” he laughed. “Same with Sully. The only credit cards were when we needed them for a job, and then they weren’t in our names.”  
“So?”  
“Every month, I mean every month we’re home, we get that stuff in emails now, I get a letter that says Nathan Drake has a bill to pay.”  
“You wish you were back in Libertalia don’t you?” it was a quick question, easy and light. A joke, almost.   
Nate didn’t rise to it though. “I don’t know, Elena. I hated most of it. Being away from you. The fact that I’d lied, and I thought I’d truly lost you that time.”  
“You almost did,” Her voice was so quiet.   
“That’s kind of the point,” he looked at her lap but he wasn’t looking at her. “I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”  
“You think I’m gonna leave you?”  
“No,” he shook his head. Then hesitated. “No. I mean. Maybe? I don’t know how to explain this Elena it just feels like a weight hanging over my head.”  
She put her hand the side of his face near the jaw and ran her thumb over his lips. She kissed him, gently, oh so gently, and he tried to relax into her touch but he couldn’t.   
She felt it, and pulled back slowly.   
“You really are scared,” She whispered.   
“I can’t lose you again.”  
“I just want you to talk to me,” She said. “Do you think I would’ve held it against you if you’d told me about Sam?”  
“I didn’t know,” he said. “I didn’t know a lot. It was so easy to fall into the old habits. It wasn’t more than a year since I got out of Panama with Rafe that I met you and we did our expedition.”  
“You were still grieving,” She said.   
“A little. He was so much to me. He’d looked after me, he’d protected me, he’d tried to provide for me.” He sighed. “So he comes back. Alive and just a little order and I can’t cope with it. I didn’t have the will to choose between you.”  
“Choose between being honest with me or following your brother?”  
“Who I thought died in prison and is miraculously alive and needs my help.” Nate nodded. Then shrugged. “It still sounds stupid to say but I can’t explain how conflicted I was.”  
“I think you should try,” Elena tried to sound gentle but Nate couldn’t tell if she meant it gently or not.   
“Elena—“  
“No, Nate, I’m not judging you, I’m asking okay?”  
He considered. “I mean, come on we were trying to make it work and we were sort of shambling and all of a sudden Sam falls back into my life and I didn’t know how to explain that. We were trying so hard and it was another treasure.” He sighed. He felt like it had become circular.   
Elena ran her fingers gently through Nate’s hair. It was starting to gray but it was still all there so Nate wasn’t so worried about it.   
“Nate,” She was slow to say these words. “Did you think I’d hate you? That I wouldn’t listen to you and help however I could?”  
Nate’s response was immediately there but he waited before he said, “I was worried you’d call me a liar.”  
“Why would I?”   
“Because it’s what I would’ve said to me if I’d heard it.”  
“I don’t know why Lazaravich bothered,” She said. “You beat yourself up better than he ever did.”  
“Well in his defense I’ve had more practice.”  
She looked into his eyes and measured something Nate couldn’t fathom.   
“You know I love you, right?” Nate whispered. “I say that enough, don’t I?”  
“I know,” She smiled. “I know, cowboy.”  
He hugged her to him. “I don’t wanna mess this up.”  
She didn’t respond immediately, she just wrapped her arms around his neck and held him to her as fiercely as he held her.   
“I’m not saying you won’t make mistakes,” Elena said softly to his ear. “But the only mistake we can’t recover from is the mistake you don’t bring me. We’re a team, right?”  
“Right.” He kissed her neck. “A team.”  
It was a kiss as gentle as the breeze but in the silence immediately after that kiss, Nate felt the heat rise between them.   
They set their bottles down, and there on the roof, found each other. 

#

Elena Fisher sat in the bathroom in her hotel room. Nate was outside, packing. The Malaysia job went longer than they’d anticipated. Shifting currents made diving more treacherous and they’d been slower to recover the goods from beneath the waves.   
During that time, Elena began to experience morning sickness. Nate didn’t catch it, not really. He’d noticed she’d gotten sick, and he’d been attentive in trying to help. He made soups, he brought her lots of water.   
Initially, she figured she’d just gotten food poisoning. The places she and Nate liked to wander after dark to get food and drinks weren’t exactly managed by health and safety officials.   
Still. She didn’t expect this to hit her quite so hard. And when the sickness persisted, she’d started to wonder if it was something else.   
In her defense, this wasn’t the first thing she’d come to suspect. She ran through a list of potential illnesses and checked in with the ship’s medic on what it was. There weren’t many facilities to run extensive blood tests to really determine what was what.   
Except the doctor, an older Japanese man who had a great sense of humor despite never appearing to smile, suggested something that Elena had never considered.   
And now, sitting in the bathroom while Nate packed, she stared at the pregnancy test. It was the third one. The results were identical, three times in a row.   
Three separate tests all provided by the Doctor because he could get such things.   
The questions burned through Elena’s brain. What would change? She was undeniably pregnant, what would change in their life because of that? She may not actually have the Pulitzer but she did good damn reporting during Lazaravich’s reign of terror, and many other crises besides.   
She was smarter than most gave her credit for, and she was a good detective, as well as a good writer.   
Had the tests gone bad so that they’d produce a false positive regardless of the actual potency of the sample offered? Was there something in the water that would produce a false positive when the truth was not so life-altering?  
Those answers weren’t hard no’s and her instincts told her they were false leads anyway because she was scrambling for a handhold.   
It’s not that she didn’t want to be a mother. It’s that, well, she was a professional. And kids had never really seemed like part of their plan.   
She looked up from the pregnancy test to the wall of the bathroom.   
Considering how most of their plans went, having a child was probably not the most cataclysmic thing in the universe.   
“Elena?” Nate knocked on the door. “You fall in?”  
“No,” She shook her head. It came out naturally, right? She started to explain or expound but Nate interrupted her.   
“Are you okay?”  
She rolled her eyes so hard they nearly fell from her skull. She had one pet peeve with Nate, one thing that genuinely pissed her off, and it’s when he played dumb for any reason. Because he was that attentive, and he was that observant.   
“I don’t know yet.”  
“What’s wrong?” He as absolutely focused.   
“Can you come in here?”  
“I mean,” He hesitated. “It depends. Am I walking into a radioactive wasteland?”  
She sighed. “Nate.”  
He turned the knob slowly. Opened the door gingerly. She’d closed the toilet and now sat on the lid.   
She looked at the test when he stepped into the bathroom.   
She could almost feel his eyes on her hands, the test, then he looked at her.   
He lobbed something back into the room, and then he knelt in front of her. She heard his knees pop.   
“Elena,” He put his hands on hers. “Are you pregnant?”  
“I am.”  
“We’re gonna be parents?” his breath was a whisper.   
She looked up at him. His eyes were bright and wide and incredulous.   
“You’re gonna be a dad, Nate.”  
She didn’t know if she cried first or he did, but then he had her in his arms and they were both crying and laughing and he said, “If you didn’t want to work anymore you could’ve just said so.”  
She thumped him on the ribs. “Jerk.”  
He pulled back, put both his hands on either side of her face and looked into her eyes with such intense seriousness that it was almost scary.   
Almost.   
“You’re gonna be an amazing mom,” Nate smiled at her, “I know it!”  
She kissed him.   
“Hey,” he said around the kiss. “That’s what got us into this.”  
“Oh shut up,” She kept kissing him. 

#

They were back in Louisiana for a moment. Nate sat at the top of a beach on the wooden bench built into the railing in the split between the dunes where the pedestrian path was.   
He and Sully sat next to each other and drank quietly. Sully worked on a cigar slowly.   
“So how’s it feel?” Nate asked. “You’re gonna be a grandpa.”  
“Oh don’t say that kid,” Sully said. “You make me sound like I’m angling for retirement.”  
“Don’t worry Sully, you’ll bury us all.”  
“Damn straight,” He took a long drag. “But first you owe me another seventy long, happy, fruitful years.”  
“Hey you’ll finally be two weeks older than Moses then!” Nate slapped his knee. “What a landmark for you!”  
“Shush, you’re not supposed to acknowledge the goal out loud, it jinxes it!”  
Nate smiled, but didn’t guffaw. Sully didn’t either.   
“Kid,” Sully said. “I know you’re scared.”  
“I’m not scared,” Nate said, clearly scared.   
“Well then you’re a fool and I know you’re not one, so cut it out, wouldja?”  
Nate drank slowly and didn’t respond immediately.   
“I don’t know what to do,” he said.   
“Are you asking me for advice or you just want me to listen?”  
“I want advice,” Nate said. “I don’t know what to do, Sully!”  
“Well hells bells kid you think I do? By the time we met you were almost fully grown. Green as hell and still a kid but you knew more than you let on.” He sighed.   
“I didn’t know what to make of you. I mean, you had enough skills to start to handle yourself and you were precocious as all hell,” Sully laughed. “But what the hell did I know about being a father?”  
“I turned out okay. Didn’t I?”  
“If I’d known you’d’ve wanted to go fishing, I’d’ve brought my poles,” Sully nudged him with an elbow. “Yeah, kid, you turned out okay. Better than I could’ve hoped, actually.”   
He looked at his cigar and brushed the ash off with flick of his pinky. “But you’re starting from scratch, kid. Your kid’ll grow up as a whole new person, surrounded by God knows what! But with any luck, that kid won’t follow our footsteps.”  
Nate didn’t know how to respond to that.   
“Don’t get me wrong,” Sully faced him. “I don’t regret one minute we spent together, okay? I love the life we’ve lead and the adventures we’ve had. We’ve made and lost fortunes together, kid, and we’ve seen more wonders than anyone on earth thinks this ole world has to provide.”  
“I don’t want to raise my child to be like me,” Nate said. “I want a better life for them.”  
“So do I. I don’t want ‘em to know what we had to learn to get ahead.”  
“I want them to be comfortable,” Nate said. “I hope they like history.”  
“Kid, if that kiddo’s got any of his parents in him, he’ll love it just like you.”  
“You think it’ll be a boy?”  
“Maybe. Might be a girl, too,” Sully shrugged. “That kid will be as smart as their parents and twice as dangerous.”  
Nate didn’t respond. His heart trembled and his stomach felt upset. Was it his dinner? Nah, it’d tasted fine and the ingredients had been all fresh and well prepared.   
Nerves then? It was nerves.   
“You seem pretty high strung, kid.” Sully said.   
Nate opened his mouth to respond but there was just too much snark to respond with. He couldn’t pick the right response.   
Instead Sully just sat there quietly and smoked.   
“I don’t know how to be a dad.”  
“You’ll figure it out.”  
“No, Sully, that’s not the point, okay? What guide do I have? My dad was a bully and a bastard and by the time I met you I was almost grown. But what do I teach my kid?”  
Silence spread between them and so many more thoughts besides raced through Nate’s mind. It was uncomfortable, how unprepared he felt for this.   
What did he have to teach a child about how to grow? The orphanage was awful, and while he was happy growing up with Sam outside it, he spent almost as much time in jail as he spent out of it.   
Nate leaned forward, put his elbows on his thighs and tried to calm himself. It didn’t work.   
“You’re really scared,” Sully said.   
“Yeah,” Nate said. “I am.”  
“I get that,” Sully said. “You should be.”  
Nate looked up, but didn’t respond.   
“No, I mean it,” Sully said. “You are doing something entirely new. What kind of baseline do we have?” he laughed. “I told you in Yemen that my childhood was lousy. I joined the Navy because it was the first thing I could do to get away from home. Your dad threw you away at an orphanage and you and Sam up and ran all over the world just because you could. Picked up a name that gave you power and tried to live up to the legacy of your inherited ancestors.”  
Nate touched the place at his chest where the ring usually would be. He hadn’t worn it in three years, but its weight lingered around his neck. Sometimes subtly, an almost forgotten memory. Sometimes it felt like a noose.   
“And I think you did okay,” Sully said. “We had some close calls, but you came through alright in the end.” He brushed the last piece of ash off his cigar and took the final puff. “You had enough wisdom to cash out of the game when you were ready. You didn’t get greedy, you didn’t overstay your welcome. You did it right, kid.”  
“Now what?” Nate asked. “Elena and I are trying to get back on our feet. And now we’ve got a kid on the way.”  
“That kid is gonna be a cornerstone.” Sully smiled. “Your whole world is going to be built around that kid. And Elena.”  
Nate looked at him. “How do you mean?”  
“You know where you really went wrong when you ran off with Sam to Italy?”  
“Yeah, I didn’t take Elena.”  
“You tried to solve the problem by yourself.”  
“I had you.”  
“Nate,” Sully shook his head. “Hush a goddamn second, okay?”  
Nate bit his tongue, and nodded.   
“You had a problem and you tried to deal with it alone. Sure, you called me, and I helped out as much as I could. But you organized the pieces, you tried to make it so that you could get Sam off the hook without anyone else being the wiser. You tried to do it yourself.”  
Nate didn’t rebuke him. He was right, of course he was.   
They sat in silence and Nate got lost in his mind. He was mostly proud of his life. El Dorado, Shamballa, Iram of the Pillars, Libertalia. It mattered, and he was grateful for those moments. He’d seen things no living person ever had and he’d touched stones that mankind had forgotten.   
But those thoughts now came with an intrusive other idea. Navigating them with Elena, now.   
Pregnant Elena being held captive by Navarro. That stung and he flinched.   
Pregnant Elena within the blast radius of Flynn’s grenade—  
Nate clenched his teeth. That event by itself was almost too close to fathom and it hurt to even begin to consider.   
Elena was still self-conscious of her scars to a degree. There was a reason they didn’t spend much time at the beach. Her whole left side was streaked with scar tissue. Nate didn’t mind, he’d spent many a night helping her change the dressings and kissing the Band-Aids and later kissing her scarred skin.   
He didn’t love kissing the scars but he did relish touching her.   
The scars were proof he hadn’t lost her. And he’d played down his fear. She may have had his tears in a jar but he couldn’t articulate how his world seemed to stop when she was lying on that stone outside the gates to Shamballa and bleeding to death and he didn’t know how to help her.   
If she’d been pregnant? Forget it. He would’ve lost his mind at any one of the near-death experiences they had. Escaping Lazaravich’s bad guys after he killed Jeff. Her chasing Lazaravich at all!  
It was insane. What kind of life do they have now that she’s pregnant?   
What kind of world does Nate raise their child in, given his history? What does he have to teach that’s not criminal or questionable?   
He sighed. “I need to go home.”  
“Go,” Sully said. “I can get a cab.”  
“You’ll come to the party on Sunday?”  
“And miss a chance to see you and Elena be all domestic? Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Sully stood up with Nate and embraced him. “Take a deep breath kid,” Sully said while he held him. “You’ll be okay.”  
Nate nodded into Sully’s shoulder. Sully released him, and Nate walked away slowly. 

#

Elena was waiting for him when he got home. Not hovering, not exactly. But she looked up and her gaze lingered when he walked through the door. It wasn’t a look that Nate missed easily.   
“Hey,” he tried to sound light, and failed miserably.   
“Hey,” She put down her laptop. “What’s up?”  
“You busy?”  
“Just looking at an email I got from my producer. He wants us to find the Holy Grail.”  
It was a joke. Nate recognized it wholly and could not have seen it as anything but a joke. But he didn’t laugh.   
“Nate,” Elena said. “What’s wrong?”  
“I don’t know what to do,” Nate confessed. “Next, I mean.”  
“Well. We should probably clean house for the party Sunday. And put away everything we don’t want to smell like Sully’s cigars.”  
He sat down on the coffee table across from her and looked into her eyes. “I’m nervous.”  
She nodded slowly. “It’s going to be a big deal,” She admitted. “Things are gonna change.”  
“I don’t know how to be a dad!” he burst. “I mean. Even if I hadn’t told you about my childhood, you’ve been along with me for my adult life to know that this isn’t exactly the life I want to bring a kid into!”  
“But we’re not,” Elena leaned forward.   
“How do you mean?”  
“We recovered the ship’s bell for the Malaysia job. We need to do some press, shake some hands, but guess what? We did something huge and archeological without having to shoot at anyone.”  
“Well technically you shot everyone mercilessly.”  
“That’s because it was a documentary, Nate,” Elena nudged him.   
He nodded slowly. “Do you think we can keep that up?”  
“Hopefully. The next job might not involve a lot of oceanic travel, so, it might be okay.”  
Nate nodded. He sighed. “I’m scared, Elena.”  
“I think that’s probably fair.” She took a deep breath. “So am I. I’m not sure that’s supposed to go away.”  
“So I’m gonna be a nervous wreck for the next eighteen years?”  
“Nineteen at least,” Elena smiled. “We haven’t even gotten far into the first trimester.”  
“Goddamn,” Nate sighed. “We’re so screwed.”  
“Point out parents that aren’t when they have their kid.” Elena laughed. “But we’ll be okay.”  
“You promise?”  
“Yeah,” Elena took his hand. “I just need two things from you.”  
“Name it.” Nate squeezed her hands. “I mean it.”  
“I need you to talk to me. Don’t keep it all up here, okay?” She tapped his temple. “That’s where we go wrong.”  
“What’s the second thing?”  
“Go get me Chinese food? I have a craving.”  
“That, I can definitely do.” except he didn’t get up.   
“What?”  
“Can I ask you for something, too?”  
“I assume you don’t mean going to get Chinese food.”  
“Not quite what I meant, no.”  
“Then name it.”  
He took a deep breath, “Don’t give up on me? I’m learning to not be an idiot and I want to get this right but it’s going to be hard as hell and while we’re teaching them,” he put a hand on her belly. “How to be a person, I’ll be learning that, too. Sorta.”  
“I think I can do that. And the second thing?”  
“Do the dishes after supper?”  
She tapped his nose. “Joke’s on you. We’re using paper plates.”  
“Gosh I hope this kid has your brains,” he leaned in and kissed Elena.

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> written for my friend Raspa!


End file.
